In distributed computing and data storage systems there is a tradeoff between consistency, availability, and partition tolerance. The CAP theorem or Brewer's theorem states that a distributed computer system generally cannot simultaneously provide consistency, availability, and partition tolerance (CAP), where consistency relates to nodes of the distributed computer system having access to the same data at the same time, availability relates to the ability of the distributed computer system to respond to a client request, and partition tolerance relates to the ability of the distributed computer system to continue to operate despite arbitrary partitioning that result from network failures. Because not all CAP attributes can be simultaneously provided, distributed system design decisions may consider tradeoffs between CAP factors.
The advent of virtualization technologies for computing resources has provided benefits with respect to managing multiple large-scale distributed network services for use by many customers with diverse needs. These distributed network services may be efficiently and securely shared by multiple customers. For example, a service provider may offer customers a selection of distributed network services hosted within a service provider environment where the distributed network services are configured according to different CAP tradeoff factors or CAP specifications.